Eagles Champs at League Meet

Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2008 by Perry King

Boys Take First and Girls Get 2nd at League Meet

The Eagles got the championship they sought and expected at the Section 1 League IV-C Meet on Tuesday, May 13, at Rye Neck as the boys bested Alexander Hamilton by 47 points. The girls kept the meet close but after losing a number of key athletes for the day or the season they finally fell to Hamilton by 43 points. Solomon Schechter and Leake and Watts also competed strongly at the meet along apparently with a team called Greenburgh North Castle who scored no points. Final scores were: Boys - DF 208, AH 161, LW 65, SS 35 -- Girls - AH 222.5, DF 179.5, SS 44, LW 24. My own guess is that Greenburgh was not there but that the meet officials needed an excuse to use the 6 place scoring system used for 5 teams rather than the usual 5 place system used for 4 teams.

The meet highlighted the huge changes in the Eagles from last year. Gone are all of the athletes who won League or Sectional championships last year either through graduation (Kadeem Scott) or other reasons (Lisa Tessitore, Sophia Veiras, Charles Harden) plus key graduates Paulina Nunez, Grace Epstein, and Kate Sterne and much of the strong girls hurdles group from last year. The team has sprinted and leaped to the challenge with giant improvements from veterans and enough mighty efforts from newcomers and younger developing athletes to provide the team with enough oomph to win a title and battle to the last step. For the Eagles who did make it to Rye Neck at a suspensefully late 4:13, some of the highlights (which are better experienced in the videos) included:

*** Top billing has to go to Alan Sanseverino who blew past the 11 second barrier on the way to winning the 100 meters and then followed with 200 meter triumph, a 2nd in his new event the long jump at over 18', and a strong leg for a DQed 4x100 squad. Alan's fast churning legs have unknown potential beyond his 10.98 time and the anticipation for the County and Sectional meets builds where he will face a fantastic crop of Class C sprinters.

*** Ramson Ragin continues to add feet to his personal best (PB) in the triple jump meet by meet. At over 38 feet yesterday to give the Eagles their second straight League championship in the event, Ramson has now reached the domain of the top jumpers in Class C. Goes to show what good technique, a fierce will, and at least basic equipment will do for you.

***Captain Lauren Hanley had a breakout day hitting the line first in the 800, 1500, and 3000 and running a "You shall not pass" third leg of the 4x400 to give anchor Phoebe Maddox a lead that Hamilton dared not mess with. Lauren's back-and-forth stretch duel with Hamilton's Jessamy in the 800 was the most exciting contest of the day.

***Backing Lauren, the middle-long distance girls crew for the 800, 1500, 3000 included Sarah King, Karen Maehara, Isabella Natale, Sofia Maluf, Rebecca Bortz, Anna Quintero, and surprise newcomer Joanne Mumbey in the 3000. Seeking to give the Eagles as big a margin as possible in these strong events, the distance runners pushed themselves through up to 3 races to give the team an 82-11 advantage in the long events plus another 10 points for a win in the 4x800 relay.

***The throwers came up huge for the boys as they used their rest at the Blind Brook meet to project great distances. Brandon Brailsford smashed the 40 foot shot barrier with a 43-10 for 1rst, brother Devonte also broke through to 40-4 for 2nd and added an 88-5 2nd place discus toss, Mike Altman fell just a foot short of 100' in winning the discus, and Joe Giuliano topped 80' for 3rd in the discus. On the girls' side, Caroline Dowdle added more than foot to her PB shot toss at 25-0 for 2nd and Christine Bucci also got a PB at 23-8 for 3rd behind double shotput\discus winner Santos of Leake and Watts.

***Celia Muoser took on the high jumping competition and came away with a first place 4-8 and PB leap that sets her up for some intriguing possibilities for more firsts in the County Class C and Sectional meets where the winning jump is usually between 4-10 to 5-0.

***Brendan Wortner took the definition of 8th grader to a new level by running away from the field in the 3200 with a PB 11:12 time. Unlimited potential here.

***Before running off to attend to music duties, Patrick Wortner roared home first in the 1600 in a shade over 5 minutes to set himself up for a big County race in the 3200.

***Heading a depleted middle distance crew, Evan Fallor took on one of the best 400-800 runners in Arnold Lane of Hamilton and battled to a 2nd in the 800 and a 3rd in the 400 with two PBs and added a strong anchor in the 4x800 with Patrick Wortner, Pat Newman, and Boris Opacic to hold off a hard-charging Lane.

***Phoebe Maddox and Yerusalem Derry and a depleted sprint crew that included Andrea Koenigsberg, Allie Jacobs, Celia Muoser, Melissa Rogow, and Mizuki Yamamoto valiantly took on the best 100-400 sprint squad in Class C and came away with some good places. Phoebe powered past the 400 field to win in a fast time for a workhorse day and she added a 3rd in the 200 behind Hamilton's sprint stars Smith and Brown. Yeru got a 5th in the 200. Andrea got a probable PB for 3rd in the 400 and added another 3rd in the long jump. Phoebe and Andrea also teamed with Lauren Hanley and Rebecca Bortz in the 4x400 to bring home an exciting and unexpected win in the day's final race in a school best 4:31.49.

***Taka Masuda and George Epstein have to be thanked for giving the best "I don't care if you're my teammate; you're going down at the finish line" performance in their entertaining and gutsy battle in the stretch for 3rd and 4th in the 3200.

***And finally, everybody's favorite warriors the hurdling crew who are not only called upon to run but also leap, including in the nastiest race known to HS track, the 400 meter hurdles. Kudos to veterans Kevin Dahill who had a PB 18.5 for 2nd in the 110 H and took 1rst in the 400 H, Julian Caldwell who had a PB 19.0 for 3rd in the 110 H (and JC added a PB 5-2 for 3rd in the high jump), Ron Nagor who had a PB 70.02 for 2nd in the 400 H, Celia Smith, semi-vet Izzy Natale and newcomers to the event Taka Masuda, Mizuki Yamamoto, and Anna Quintero for literally giving their all.

There are 48 videos of the League Meet posted here. Check them out and take a look at your running style. If you are leaning back, flapping your arms around, or have your hands hanging down by your kneecaps instead of up by your chest, that's a problem.

Saturday's Westchester County meet is at Byram Hills in Armonk and is an all day affair. Hopefully the weather will be better than at last year's cold wet meet.

Results

Top 3 places as reported in the Journal News, with names corrected. Although the JN went 35-12 on nailing the names, they did miss on Alan 3 times (Sanserino x 2, Sanzeveino), Andrea 2 times (Hoenigsberg, Koenigyang), Brandon and Devonte (Bruilsford, Baelsford), Boris (Opicol), Ron (Nagos), Caroline (Dowdee), Joe (Giulino), and Celia (Muoson). They also got SS's Spitz as Spite. The rest of the places and nonscoring times and distances will be entered if they become available.